White femininity - Dior Omotesando

With the latest trend of fashion houses stamping
their presence in Japan by engaging architects to design their flagship
building along the trendy Omotesando in Tokyo, Dior is no exception
as well. Fifty years after the first Christian Dior fashion show
in Japan, Dior opened a large general boutique, 'Dior Omotesando',
housing its various merchandise lines. This is Dior's first boutique
in the world that is created right from the planning stage.

Designed by experimental Japanese architect duo Kazuyo Sejima and
Ryue Nishizawa, known collectively as SANAA, the building is a pristine
white box with sharp edges and occupies the entire trapezoidal site.
Couture dress, the ultimate beauty in fashion, is the main source
of inspiration for this new creation. Standing at 30 m tall, it
seems to be like an eight-storey high building with a dramatic double-skin
façade of transparent flat glass on the outside and softly
curved, white translucent acrylic panels on the inside, reminiscent
of the drape of a dress. White stripes are printed on the acrylic
walls so that the building's appearance changes beautifully depending
on the light during the day and the level of penetration of lighting
at night. A few white horizontal aluminium bands further break the
continuous volume into several unequal segments. This slender white
box speaks of an elegant femininity that enables it to stand out
effortlessly along the star-studded street. Not revealing entirely
what is behind the white drapes, it exudes an air of mystery that
invites one to step into the luxury world of Dior and explore.

Internally, a different world awaits revelation. Instead of the
eight floors of boutique space perceived earlier from the street,
there is only one basement floor and five above-ground levels. The
basement and the first three floors are devoted to the various retail
lines under the Dior umbrella; there is one multi-purpose event
space on the fourth floor and a rooftop garden above. The reason
for this apparent misrepresentation of floors is the enlargement
of mechanical space from the minimum requirement of 1.5 m to greater
heights that befit the overall façade composition. Instead
of hiding them, SANNA expressed and skilfully incorporated them
to create a slender volume that built right to the maximum allowable
height. The legibility of spaces is aided by the varying degree
of transparency whereby the mechanical spaces are the most opaque.

Designed by Dior's own in-house designers, each retail line has
its own design vocabulary and distinctive ambience. The first and
second floor is devoted to ladies' prÈt-a-porter and accessories.
The interior design is produced by collaboration of Peter Marino
and Architecture & Associés (Pierre Beucler and Jean
Christophe Poggioli), with the same classic concept of the main
boutique located in Avenue Montene, Paris. Molded ceilings, parquet
floors, wood panelling, pure romance and tradition that are in sharp
contrast to the external modern glazed walls. The third floor is
devoted to the beauty world with the concept theme of Backstage.
It is here that customers can experience the presence of runway
and backstage of Dior fashion show, wearing the newest mode in make-up,
nail and skincare, in a modern and up-to-date atmosphere. The stair
core that links the various floors has glass tower that stands from
the basement to the roof, housing mirror-finished stainless steel
and backlit display shelves within.

Another memorable interior ambience is the Dior Homme store, located
at the underground level. Conceived by Hedi Slimane, Creative Director
of Menswear, a vocabulary of materials inherent to the universe
of Dior Homme is used but with a design specific to Omotesando:
white lacquer, black lacquer plissé, polished metal, black
stone floor, strip lighting, an artist's fitting room by Carsten
Höller, and the incorporation of the signature red light. These
elements are based on a tradition of Dior but have been reinterpreted
and transposed into a modern context. Geometric arches punctuate
the centre of the space. When a visitor is seated within one of
structures, a red light is activated with directional sound. Polished
metal is used in series, defining the space with a reflective surface.
The Dior plissé appears as an architectural aspect of black
lacquer rhythmic bands. Light is used as a graphic element within
the floor, sides, and ceiling. On the other hand, the artist Carsten
Höller uses the fitting room to explore the notion of time
and self-perception. In the place of a traditional fitting mirror,
there is a projection surface where images of the person within
the space appear in photographic partitions. These images change
systematically, presenting different angles of the individual in
a series of still frames. It is a place of interaction and imagistic
investigation.

The interior of the building might be eclectic, but the thermoformed
acrylic drapes manages to manifest a coherent image that symbolises
Dior's femininity and arouses one's imagination at the same time.
When looking towards the cityscape from inside, one seems to be
in a fairyland engulfed by this cloud of fuzzy whiteness.